Bhubaneswar, Feb 13: Sardar Singh led Delhi Waveriders faced hosts Kalinga Lancers for the first time in the Indian Hockey League where both the team fought a closely contested battle and settled for a 2-2 draw at the jam packed Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar.

The first quarter of the match saw both Lancers and Waveriders in an attacking mode as the sides tried to score the first goal in the match. After a failed attempt by Yuvraj Walmiki in opponents', Lucas Vila of Kalinga Lancers made a similar attempt and succeeded in yielding a goal in the third minute of the game helping his team to take the 1-0 lead.

Lancers' coach Jude Felix was happy with the team's improving performance but rued on the fact that the team failed to close off the match.

"Yeah this was our better games definitely. But even as leading 2-0 we had a chance to finish the match off which meant another couple of goals that we missed when the score was 2-0. There we could have finished the match up. When you missed those goals I think we knew the pressure would be back on us and that's exactly what happened," said Jude Felix, Coach, Kalinga Lancers.

The third quarter of the game saw calculated game from both the sides as they did well in their attacks and defensive play.

The fourth and the final quarter saw both attacks and counter-attacks from both the sides where Delhi Waveriders managed to level the team's scores with the hosts as the match ended with a 2-2 draw.

"Like the way coach said if you go and watch the previous matches of the Kalinga Lancers they are performing very well and specially on this pitch in front of the home crowd. As the coach said there ball rotation was very fast, that was their plus point. After that 2-0 down and after that we drew this game and that is also very good. And our team is improving day by day and I would say up and down keep on happening and the days are not same. The performance that we had in the last two editions we are not happy according to that. But we are getting better day by day," Sardar Singh, Captain, Delhi Waveriders.